In a quiet afternoon, the wind blew gently, turning the pages of an opened book.
At a desk by the open window, a man in white shirt could barely be seen behind piles of folders of research papers. The rustling sound of the pages made him stop what he was doing. He took off his glasses and kneaded between his brows. It's summer break, but he had piles of things, in literal and figurative sense, to do.
He stood up and walked out of his desk. After few steps, he stopped by the window.
The sky was blue without any clouds. His black hair was tousled by the win and some strands fell on his eyes which made him frown. He slowly brushed them to the side while thinking it's about time to get a hair cut.
He looked back at his desk and stretched his arm to pick up the open book. It just happened to be on page 118; I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud by William Wordsworth.
With a gentle smile, he read the first stanza with his eyes.
A pity, he thought, that he wasn't beside the lake nor was there a host of daffodils. But the sky was enough. Looking up, he could somehow relate to William Wordsworth. After all, being a cloud once in a while wasn't so bad too.
Well, to be honest, he didn't feel like going back to checking research papers. So he closed the window and walked out of the faculty room to buy himself a cup of coffee in the nearby cafeteria. In this sleepy afternoon, a cup of hot black coffee and Pachelbel's Canon in D Major would be perfect.
Three hours later, Ray finally decided to put down his work and call it a day. A fair, slender hand placed a cup of coffee on his desk. He glanced up and was greeted by Serenity's beautiful, light brown eyes. He thanked her softly.
"Done for today?", she asked.
He nodded lightly. "I'll try to finish these by Friday."
Serenity hummed. "You're such a workaholic. You should take a break and have fun. It's the summer break."
"That's the plan." He paused a bit. "Today is the 17th. I remember you mentioned there's a concert. Are you going?"
Serenity smiled, "Yes, and some ladies in the Ed department. A pity you declined, so I had no choice but to give away the remaining ticket." She pouted, but her eyes were smiling in good humor.
"Isn't it an all-girls' night?" Ray laughed. "Besides, I am not fond of that kind of genre."
Serenity tapped his desk. "What you really want to say is that it's an insult to your manly man pride." She laughed at her own joke.
"If you think so."
"She's a drop-dead gorgeous singer! There are thousands of men who worship her. Don't you know? Half of her fans are men." Her gaze turned serious for a split-second as she glanced at him. "You going to her concert is pretty normal."
After a few more exchanges between them, Serenity left with her friends. Ray shook his head in helplessness.
He remembered the intermission number the ladies of English faculty performed during last year's Christmas party. Weeks before that, he walked into the faculty room and greeted by such a scene. Women from mid-20s to mid-40s gathered together in front of a laptop. They were seriously trying to follow some dance steps. He simply didn't care and minded his own business, but for some reason, these ladies got bored and decided to tease him.
He was teased into watching the video and found out it was a music video of a famous pop singer in the country - Julia. In the video, the beautiful woman was singing and dancing. At first, he thought it was just some catchy song typically popular among young people. That changed when it reached the chorus.
Julia suddenly appeared dressed in denim shorts that were so short they were like underwear; exposing the singer's beautiful, shapely thighs without any so-called thigh gap. Her top was a spaghetti-strap like camisole that barely reached her belly button. Even her navel was exposed. There were male back-up dancers behind her.
He thought it was still "normal" since many singers nowadays sang on stage barely clothed. Then this singer suddenly turned to the side with her head facing the camera. She touched the corner of her luscious lower lip with her pointer finger and gently bit the tip like a child craving for candy. She squinted her eyes slightly. A smirk appeared on her face and the video zeroed in on her and her body.
She twisted her body like a snake as she ran her fingers through her hair. Ray's eyes grew bigger when she suddenly ticked tock her hips left to right and vice versa.
He wordlessly looked at the ladies who guffawed at his reaction. He didn't mind. But he was seriously worried. Why on earth did they choose such song and dance? Aside from being suggestive (which was very inappropriate), some of them were not young anymore. How could their bodies execute such moves?
It was later proven that the ladies' weeks of hard work and practice turned into a clumsy and awkward intermission they would regret for the rest of their teaching careers.
